World must help Pakistan recover from catastrophic floods

The forthcoming conference on Resilient Pakistan, being co-hosted by the Government of Pakistan and the United Nations in Geneva on January 9, will bring together governments, leaders from the public and private sectors, and civil society to help Pakistan recover from the devastating floods of 2022. The disaster inundated one-third of its territory and affected 33 million people.

Pakistan was the hardest hit among the countries that faced extreme weather-related events and catastrophes last year. The monsoon rains, almost 400% above average in some parts, swamped vast arid regions. Hill torrents and flash floods washed away entire villages. The human and material costs of the disaster has been staggering. More than 1,700 lives lost, onethird of whom were children. The poorest districts were most affected. Infrastructure losses included nearly 13,000 kilometres of roads, 400 bridges and several hundred dams, and over 25,000 schools and 1,500 health facilities, destroyed or damaged.

The Post-Damage Needs Assessment (PDNA) — conducted jointly by the Government of Pakistan and its international development partners, including the World Bank, the Asian Development Bank, the European Union, UN relief agencies, in October — has estimated the aggregate cost of the calamity at $30.1 billion. This includes $14.9 billion in damages to infrastructure and $15.2 billion in economic losses. The minimum needs identified for recovery, rehabilitation and reconstruction are estimated at $16.3 billion.

Thankfully, the urgent relief and recovery task has been managed steadily by mobilizing limited government resources and through generous support from the international community. The federal and provincial governments have spent approximately $1.5 billion in this gigantic effort, including emergency cash transfers worth $286 million among 2.7 million affected households under the Benazir Income Support Programme.

The Geneva conference seeks to forge a global partnership for rebuilding and reconstructing Pakistan’s resilience. Despite facing enormous economic difficulties, Pakistan is committing to share half of the estimated $16.3 billion required to meet the immediate needs of recovery, rehabilitation and reconstruction in the next three years under the PDNA report.

The Resilient Recovery, Rehabilitation and Reconstruction Framework (4RF), which is prepared by the Government of Pakistan and its international development partners on the basis of PDNA findings, will be shared with the friends of Pakistan and development partners at the Geneva conference.

It lays out a multisectoral strategy for rehabilitation and reconstruction in a resilient and inclusive manner to build back a better future for the communities most affected by the floods. The 4RF aims to achieve four strategic recovery objectives, including restoring livelihoods and economic opportunities, ensuring social inclusion and participation, restoring and improving basic services and physical infrastructure, and developing an enabling environment for private sector participation. This post-disaster strategic framework is also a foundation on which the country will build and strengthen long-term resilience.

Ahsan Iqbal is Federal Minister for Planning and Development of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan